“I sometimes read about authors who say they require a perfectly silent room maintained at precisely 68 degrees, with trash bags taped over the windows and a white-noise machine in the corner to write, and I think, 'Who are these people, and do any of them have kids?” PeopleThinkingWritingSometimesKidsWhiteRoomsDegreesWindowMachinesSilentCornersNoiseBagsTrashWhite Noise Author:Jennifer Weiner
“The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance. It is here that the stereotype of the programmer, sitting in a dim room, growling from behind Coke cans, has its origins. The disorder of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-It notes everywhere; the whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought. The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer.” NeedsHumansRoomsBehindsDemandLowsSittingProgramMachinesNotesClarityPostsManifestationGradesCoveredDisorderYellowDesksStereotypeDeclarationProgrammersCokeAnnoyanceHuman ThoughtMessinessGrowlingPost It Notes Author:Ellen Ullman
“I don't know where the characters are going to go or what's going to happen. I know that something inevitable will happen. I know that they want certain things and they're in a certain room and they smell like this and they look like that. More often than not, an entropy creeps in that strangles me, and then the inevitable happens. I don't know if I have the ability to write an ending like My Fair Lady's, when everyone gets what they want after a few minor conflicts. If I tried to write that it would just be false. Or I'd have someone enter with a machine gun.” IfsKnowsWantWritingLooksCharacterHappensCertainAbilityRoomsConflictGunFairsMachinesSmellInevitableMinorsCreepsEntropyMachine GunsMy Fair Lady Author:Adam Rapp
“So, think about how you use a disc that you own of an Xbox 360 game. If I buy the disc from a store, I use that disc in my machine, I can give that disc to my son and he can play it on his 360 in his room. We both can't play at the same time, but the disc is the key to playing. I can go round to your house and give you that disc and you can play on that game as well.” IfsThinkingGivingWellsI CanPlayUseGamesHouseRoomsSonKeysMachinesRoundsStoresMy SonDiscsXbox Author:Larry Hryb
“[Finishing schools] are nicely adapted machines for experimenting on the question, "Into how little space a human being can be crushed?" I have seen some souls so compressed that they would have fitted into a small thimble, and found room to move . . .” HumansLittlesSoulSchoolMovingFoundHuman BeingsSpaceRoomsMachinesCrushedFinishingAdaptedFinishing School Author:Olive Schreiner